Wash Painting 2: More Happy Accidents

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.

In case you missed my previous post on this subject, take a look at Wash Painting Part One: In Praise of Happy Accidents.


All of the images you see in this and the previous post come from two issues of Colliers from 1934. Every week, the staff artists had to quickly produce striking images to accompany the articles. Speed was of the essence. Wash painting was a quick and beautiful solution.


One week, an artist might be illustrating a romance...


The next week a Western adventure...


The technique lent itself to both realistic depiction and cartoony stylization.

If you haven't checked them out yet, make sure to take a look at our previous posts on mid 30s Colliers illustrations and late 40s Colliers. There's a wealth of great images in old magazines like this.


Many thanks to Mike Fontanelli for sharing these with us. He has a stack of Colliers with Earl Oliver Hurst covers that he will be bringing by soon. I can't wait to see those.


Here's the rest of the Famous Artists lesson on wash painting. Let me know in the comments if you give this lesson a try.



FAMOUS ARTISTS ON WASH PAINTING PART TWO: Step By Step Through Paintings By Dohanos and Whitcomb









One last thing... Often when people speak of transparent water colors in animation, they refer to it as an "old fashioned" technique...


But there's nothing old fashioned about watercolor painting. Check out the great watercolors by Archive supporter William K. Moore...


Bill paints people he finds on the streets in Bogota, Columbia. Browse through his blog and be amazed at his keen observation and boundless imagination. This man paints a painting every day of his life! That makes him a hero in my book.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Wash Painting Part One: In Praise of Happy Accidents, Mid 30s Colliers Illustrations, Late 40s Colliers, Lawson Wood: The Monkey Artist, Complete Guide To Cartooning On Magazine Cartoons Part One and Part Two.

Also check out these lessons from the Famous Artists Course... Chad's Design For Television, Willard Mullin on Drawing Animals, Fundamentals of Composition Part One and Part Two.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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